The Colorado Avalanche named Gabriel Landeskog as its newest captain Tuesday

Avalanche coach Joe Sacco informed Gabriel Landeskog he was the club’s next captain this morning, and PR prez Jean Martineau and sidekick Brendan McNicholas managed to gather the media at 4 p.m. Yes, it was cheesy, but also cool. Kudos to Milan Hejduk for participating, and being honest about things. It was a fun event.

We will have quotes from Joe Sacco about Landeskog in Wednesday’s paper. Sacco said this about off-season free-agent signees P.A. Parenteau, John Mitchell and Greg Zanon and the stockpile of defensemen that currently has youngsters Stefan Elliott, Tyson Barrie and Duncan Siemens on the outside looking in. (The Avs have seven D on one-way contracts, plus the three young guys on two-ways.)

“We brought in P.A. Parenteau, a guy who is going to fill a void for us on the wings, a guy who is going to give us some scoring, playing with some top players,” Sacco said. “He’s a top-six forward, a power-play guy, counted on to produce some offense for us, and then I think we brought in a couple good depth players, who have a little more experience, too, to help our lineup. Mitchell is a guy who has been around a few years now. He can play center, can play wing, good speed, and I like the fact that he played for the Rangers last year and went to the (Eastern) conference finals, so he’s got some playoff experience under his belt. You can never have enough of that. And with Zanon, (he’s) another guy on the back end that can give us more depth. The thing that sticks out for me when playing against Greg when he was in Minnesota was, I just felt this guy was always in the way of what we were trying to accomplish. Not flashy, but certainly gets the job done. Very solid defensively … and just very difficult to play against.”

Depth at D:

“There’s going to be some internal competition in training camp, no question,” Sacco said. “It’s going to be interesting to see how it all unfolds … Certainly we’re not going to carry nine defensemen. We’ll carry seven or eight, determined at the end of training camp … You can’t count anybody out (including Siemens). He’s signed, under contract. He’s has the ability to go back to junior still, but he’s also 6-foot-3 and he skates well. We’ll see how he presents in training camp.”

Landeskog is about as ready to be an NHL captain as my 8 year old niece is.

It should be as obvious as anything that the Avs just want to continue pushing out the publicity stunts. Now they can shout to the world that they’ve got the youngest NHL captain ever.

Ya know what? Big freaking deal.

Ryan O’Reilly is the unquestioned leader of this team. Or, at least he was. There’s no way in the world O’Reilly signs a long term deal with the Avs now. He’ll walk away for nothing once his current deal expires. He’s not going to stick around and be disrespected like this.

Everyone has watched Ovechkin struggle in Washington while trying to be their captain. If you think that’s a nightmare, just wait until we see Landeskog wearing the “C”. It’s going to get ugly quick. The refs are going to make his life horrible. You have to EARN the “C”, and Landeskog has not come close to earning it.

Just another PR stunt in a long line of PR stunts by the Avalanche.

Clyde

It was thought to be a joke in Pittsburgh too when Sid was named Captain (think that turned out fine).

I don’t know, Crosby didn’t impress me with his leadership with his immature actions during the playoffs.

Clyde

Last year for sure, they acted like the 70’s Flyers. I think he had grown prior to that. Let’s hope Landy is a great role model. I am sure this was discussed with Mr. Sakic to get his thoughts too.

KG

You dont know anything you fool, stop making ridiculous assumptions. O’reilly is great, but has only had one good year offensively… Landeskog is a one in a lifetime kind of player and owned the Avs in stats last year and came up big when the team needed it, I dont know how you can say this is a bad move, O’reilly or not… Go avs and shame on all the so called “Avs fans” that cant just root for the team (unless of coarse they are winning)

Alternate Captain of his junior team at 17, less than a year after moving across the Atlantic, and then Captain of his junior team in his draft year. Had every last scout in the league drooling at his maturity and professionalism, and none having a single disparaging word. The head scout of the Devils joked – “I wanted to tell him my problems.” An undisputed on-ice leader of the Avs as a rookie, and already one of the best players in the league by the end of the season. An alternate captain at the World Championships as the second youngest player on Team Sweden. Your niece could be a world leader someday, if she’s got a similar c/v.

Why bring up Ovechkin? Why not bring up Toews?

If O’Reilly feels disrespected because he’s not the captain, he’s certainly not the same O’Reilly we all know and love. He’s a hard worker who keeps his head down and stays focused on the prize.

Can you rattle off a quick list of Avs PR stunts? I’m curious, because the Avs stink at PR, and I can’t think of anything they’ve done for shock and entertainment in the last decade that doesn’t involve that silly mascot.

Oh. And seeing as how Crosby was named captain on may 31 he still went five months without playing as captain. Which gives landy five months to CAPTAIN A GAME. Bet you didn’t know that did you

Gandalf Is An Avs Fan

Don’t compare Landeskog and this position to the “youngest captain ever”. If Colorado feels like Landeskog should be captain, then thats exactly why they named him captain. We have been told for a while that Landeskog is way to wise for his years, and it showed in the quality of his stats last year.

The best way to get publicity is to win games, which if the Avs wanted publicity, they would have used more of their cap room to get players to give them wins. If this was to get publicity, and they did this as a stratagem to try to fill seats, then this organization is as lost as Monfort’s Rockies.

But my heart tells me Landeskog has the leadership skills and the selflessness it takes to be captain, and that this move is only to improve the already young team.

Which cap room the 70 million one now or the projected 50 million with the last proposal? I would rather them be in the position they are in now instead of having to shed talent after something gets signed.

JS19

Goodbye O’Reilly, Stastny and Duchene. It was nice to know you.

Jon E.

Stastny and Duchene (at least at this point and
time) aren’t captain material. Landeskog is the kind of kid that can
already take this team on his back and win games. Duchene has a
completely different personality than Landeskog, and frankly, he just
isn’t that mature yet. He’s still trying to find his groove at the NHL
level, alas, last years performance was mostly attributed to injuries, I
see him having a break out year this season with PA Parenteau next to
him on the wing. Stastny has reached his peak and still performs too
inconsistently, his contract basically set him up for failure, even at
his best he’s not worth the money he gets paid – you don’t want your
captain setting that sort of standard/example for the rest of the team.
This is basically why I think Hejduk is passing the torch going into
this season, knowing that he’s at the end of his career and one of the
kids needs to take the reigns and run with it. This team is
Landeskog/O’Reilly/Duchene/Johnson’s going forward and Hejduk knows
that…I honestly feel like him taking on the role last season contributed
to the down year – some people just don’t want that sort of pressure
whereas I think someone like Landeskog thrives in those situations and
is the perfect candidate out of anyone on the team right now. O’Reilly is a great kid too and I don’t disagree that he’s just as capable of filling the role as well and he will wear an A after Hejduk retires and/or Stastny is traded away. O’Reilly needs to fire his agent because that’s the only reason he doesn’t have a deal right now and those who think otherwise are just ignorant – PK Subban doesn’t have a deal yet either and he has the same agent, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he has other clients without deals…point is, it’s not the Avs holding this up.

flyfysher

Let’s hope Landeskog lives up to being the team’s captain. For what it’s worth, I think Landeskog is more than capable of doing so and is likely to do so.

skidoc51

Yet another case of Sacco not knowing his team.He spent the last 2 years mismanaging the talent and he has done this again by naming Landeskog the captain. The title of captain is more than just a title; it requires the ability to lead and unfortunately, Landeskog hasn’t been here long enough to show that he can.I’m not sure that past experience in the juniors can be translated to the NHL. Given time to mature, it may very well be that Landeskog will be the guy, but this is another misdirection by a coach who is on the hot seat.

Good thing we have people like you, sir, in the locker room with these guys to tell us how it REALLY is. Thanks so much

Anonymous

People have the nerve to mock the Avs for making this move , due in part to MILAN. I mean, who the hell else do these nay sayers think we have lined up to be Captain????? It’s not as if the Avs have 7 superstars they bypassed just to have a glamorous press conference to nominate a young stud. He is the most logical choice, WITH THE MOST SKILL AND LEADERSHIP!! So why not just be happy about it, and lets hope some of the stupidity drops off so the NHL season can start , as I am sure there has to be other things to whine about one being a canceled season and loss of interest from a zillion fans …..

cmrn631

The fact that Hejduk gave up his C to Landeskog shows that he is meant to be the leader of this team. I think Hejduk knows better then anyone what is needed in this organization after playing so many years with Sakic and Co.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.